Chatsworth House

 Hello there!

With lockdown measures easing it has meant we are able to venture outside again. While things aren't "normal", it feels a lot more normal than a few months back!

We finally got around to booking a day trip to Chatsworth House, in Bakewell, Derbyshire. Tickets must be pre-booked for this, however you only pay for the parts of the estate you will visit. As we had our furry pal Hal, we only needed to buy a car park and gardens ticket.

Chatsworth House is a huge, grand house with even larger gardens to roam! I had visited a few years ago and the gardens have been updated since then, plenty of sections to stare at and explore.

A few parts of the gardens are currently off limits due to social distancing measures - the orangerie and garden maze - but there is plenty of garden to still wander around! The orangerie is still visible from the outside, full of exotic palms, and the maze can be seen from above, as shown by Hal below!

The pinetum was our first venture along the clear, laid out paths. Full of pine trees that are many years old. Some pine trees off the paths had fallen creating obstacles and hiding places for both children and pups! Lots of sculptures and art appear throughout Chatsworth gardens, including these pine tree trunks as modelled by our Hal.

Just after the pinetum, we found the grotto overlooking a large pond - unfortunately we didn't get a picture in the grotto but a lovely relaxing area!

Then, we wandered past the maze and found ourselves in the rockery - yes, lots of rocks! There is more height to the gardens then we realised, not just by climbing these rocks but the height of the gardens is due to it's location in the Peak District. Great fun was had by Hal venturing through these rocks, can you spot him?!

After the rockery, we made our way to the cascade fountain. The design and architecture was so well planned and looks amazing to the eye - it's almost as if they knew their creations would look so good on Instagram! The cascade fountain trickles down a long row of steeps to the bottom. At the top, there is a stone grotto with a brilliant view of the fountain cascading down (get it?!) and the house itself in the distance. Unfortunately, there was a queue to get a posed photo at the top and as it had begun raining we had to skip it. Enjoy a posed Hal and his dad at the foot of the cascade fountain instead!

After the cascade fountain, we found ourselves in the kitchen garden - all sorts of fruits and vegetables had been grown ready for picking - and then onto the new trout stream, which was in phase 4 of development so not completely ready yet.

We headed back towards Chatsworth House itself for the main photoshoot - the Emperor Fountain! Again, another brilliant design with canal pond lining up with the house in the distance. The canal pond isn't very deep at all but not a pond for paddling! Hal was impressed for sure!

Just before leaving, we stopped for coffee and ice-cream. The gift shop is still open with one way systems, along with the cafe. There is also a smaller cafe located next to it for quicker items like our ice-cream and coffee! Masks were to be worn inside all indoor areas, but being such a fab outdoor area we never felt squished or too close to others.

A great day out for humans and pups, all the gardens were dog friendly and our Hal loved his adventure. We covered about 11,000 steps over a few hours and stopped for a picnic. Even the rain didn't spoil the day!

Hal & the team x